The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group works to help people whose rights have been violated and investigates cases involving such abuse, as well as assessing the overall human rights situation in Ukraine. The Group also seeks to develop awareness of human rights issues through public events and its various publications

The investigation of the attack on Oleksandr Pomoynitskiy (the Kyiv oblast)

The investigation of the attack on Oleksandr Pomoynitskiy (the Kyiv oblast)

23 June 2003. The Institute of mass information turned to Mr. Gaysinskiy, the prosecutor of the Kyiv oblast, with the request about the investigation of the case started after the attack on Oleksandr Pomoynitskiy, a journalist of the newspaper “Dilovy Pereyaslav”. The materials concerning the attack on the journalist were passed by the IMI to the General Prosecutors office. By the opinion of Svetlana Pomoynitska, the wife of the victim, the investigation of the case is reaching a deadlock. The militiamen behave discourteously during the interrogations, searches and checking the versions. The contents of the interrogations and the ODA as a whole are actively discussed in the town. This confirms that the militiamen divulge the details of the pre-trial investigation. In the complaint addressed to the prosecutor of the Kyiv oblast S. Pomoynitska described the offences committed by the law-enforcers during the month that passed since the attack on her husband. As it became known to the IMI from its sources in the prosecutors office, today the investigation has two versions: the attack was ordered either by the competitors in business or by mass media-competitors. We want to remind that the incident happened on 26 May about 8 a.m. not far from the house of Oleksandr Pomoynitskiy. In the presence of many witnesses two strangers attacked the journalist and began to beat him with clubs wrapped in newspapers. Journalists wife Svetlana tells that the witnesses saw how the attackers got into a blue “Opel”, which was waiting for them near the place of crime. She believes that this fact confirms that the attack was thoroughly planned. Oleksandr Pomoynitskiy was taken to a hospital with cranium trauma and numerous haematomas. S. Pomoynitska informs that the state of her husband remains, according to the words of doctors, “serious and stable”. The case was started after Article 121 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (premeditated serious bodily injuries).

The Institute of mass information, “Barometr svobody slova”, June 2003